Interview With Anil Agarwal from BloggersPassion

Hi Anil, Please introduce yourself to UpdateLand readers?

My name is Anil and I’m the founder of Bloggers Passion blog where I’m trying to help my blog readers in improving their website traffic and revenue. I started this blog in 2010.

I also write a ton of case studies on website traffic and revenue topics to help my blog readers with the same from time to time. Sharing couple of them below. I hope UpdateLand readers will also like to know.

In 2018, we end up making $106,000 plus income from Bloggerspassion.com blog which is an increase of 35% from 2017 ($65,000). You can read more about our latest traffic and income report at Bloggerspassion.

Apart from Bloggers Passion, I recently started a hosting project at HostingMonks.com where I will be sharing web hosting related solutions to my blog readers.

How did you come to blogging and what was the main purpose to start BloggersPassion ?

I started my career as an SEO expert and I happen to create blogs (for traffic and links) to promote company websites I was working for. But soon I realized the true potential of blogging.

Since I was not much happy with the salary I was getting from companies I was working for, so I have to look out for alternatives using which I can make some extra income.

Like most of other bloggers, I started with free blogs on Blogspot and created blogs on finance and health related topics. Made lots of mistakes like keep on using blogspot blogs for a long time, wrong niche selection and Adsense was the only way I was monetizing my blog at that time.

Then I started my first blog at scopeformoney.com (which does not exist now) which I sold via Flippa to a UK guy for $35,000 in 2008 (as I need funds for my home purchase).

In 2010, I started working on Bloggers Passion with the aim to make a name for me in blogging and SEO industry (Apart from revenue motives). I’m trying to work on Bloggers Passion in a way, things should keep improving with time.

In the past, we were relying heavily on Google search and as a way to diversify our traffic sources, we are trying to be more active on other platforms like Facebook group, Quora and YouTube channel to name a few.

While creating a post, we work on doing proper on-page SEO for it and then wait for few months to see the actual potential of that post. If it started showing up in top 15 or 20, we try to build some quality links for it through guest posts, blog commenting, social sharing and through internal linking etc.

Which things a blogger should keep in mind while starting a new blog and what should do to make it successful?

Don’t compare the starting of your journey with someone else end result.

Don’t pick a niche on the basis of others success. Pick a niche you are most passionate about.

Once you have picked a good niche, setup your self hosted blog, start producing quality contents on your blog and keep on gaining more and more knowledge about your niche topics.

Don’t forget to do keyword research for every topic you write on your blog and learn the basics of SEO.

Keep producing quality contents on your blog and try to promote it via different channels.

If you continue producing quality contents and promoting it at the same time, you should be able to see some success with your blog within just 1-2 years.

What mistakes you made so far in your blogging journey and what you have learned from them?

I have made lots of mistakes in my blogging journey and it’s also true I learnt a lot from them. Sharing few of mistakes I made and few on which I need to work on:

For many years I was not building any email list on my blog. No doubt I started working in this direction, but still I need to master it.

I have been very late starter with video content. I uploaded my first video on my YouTube channel in this month only. I will try to get better at video content creation (in Hindi & English) in the coming days. But still I’m a beginner here.

Not doing any keyword research for the first 2-3 years of my blog. Since we did not spend any time on doing keyword research during the initial years of Bloggers Passion, so we end up creating lots of posts that are not driving any traffic from search engines. Now we are working for improving them and in case cases we are de-indexing and doing the redirections as well.

I have team who help me with content development, web design & development related needs.

What is your strategy to find new keywords which already not covered by other bloggers?

It’s very hard to find a keyword that has some search volume and is not being covered by any website or blog owner. I try to target long tail keywords that have less keyword difficulty and less competition.

Before making decision about a keyword that we are targeting, we should check the quality and authority of top 10 sites that are ranking for that term. If we can create better content than them and can promote it properly, we should be able to outrank them in sometime.

Which link building techniques you personally use and what things one should keep in to mind while create backlinks for his/her blog?

Sharing below the backlink strategies that I’m using these days:

Try to write posts for top blogs in blogging and SEO industry.

Be part of roundups that are happening

Accepting interview opportunities

Giving testimonials to people who are reaching me.

Writing high quality comments on top blogs in my niche.

Spreading words about my content through Social networks.

Doing internal linking naturally.

Writing well researched and highly educational content which attracts lots of natural links in the long run.

I avoid getting links from sites that have no search traffic and no authority in my niche.

I try to do lots of variations with my anchor text (Branded, Branded plus keyword, long anchors, generic anchors etc) while I’m building links.

Now, we have reached at the end of interview. A big thanks to Anil for accepting my interview invitation and investing his precious time in replying all questions. I hope you guys will be enjoy this interview with Anil Agarwal from BloggersPassion and learn amazing blogging tips from him.

If you have any question for Anil Agarwal, drop a comment below right now. He will be happy to answer you.

Hi Jyoti, I’ve been following Anil and am very impressed with his work. I LOVE his Facebook groups and I don’t particpate in a lot due to time constraints. But I have learned a lot from him and the group there. I highly recommend it.
This was a very inspiring post for me! It shows how hard work can really pay off in blogging.
I have one question Anil, how many blogs do you run?
Thanks and have a wonderful day ahead.

Thanks and glad to see your comment here Lisa. Yes, I can understand that you’ve time limits when it comes to managing your social media activities. Glad to know that you’re learning a lot and you’re also a huge inspiration for many people including me.

Regarding the blogs, I currently own 3, besides, Bloggers Passion, I also run HostingMonks.com and Dealsngadgets.com which are still in the initial stage (and takes time to make them profitable).

This is really a great read, and even the most experienced bloggers have a lot to learn from here. When I started blogging, I came across BloggersPassion, since that day, I learned so many things about blogging from him.

I need to know why he told that “I avoid getting links from sites that have no search traffic and no authority in my niche.” Links from that kind of websites (other than our niche and small blogs with no traffic) could do damage?

The reason I said ““I avoid getting links from sites that have no search traffic and no authority in my niche.” is most of the times, such links won’t help with my search traffic. Often times, those sites have huge spam score and that’s why I stay away from them.